92649591 Today in Sri Lanka the Detergent Industry Has Become a Turbulent

8/12/2019 92649591 Today in Sri Lanka the Detergent Industry Has Become a Turbulent

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Today in Sri Lanka the detergent industry has become a turbulent, rapid changing industry.

There are many brands involved in this day to day household business, here we talk about Surf

Excel ! one of the top brands in the industry.

"n a country like Sri Lanka, people were used to stick in to soap in cleaning purposes especially

in laundry. #ccording to the geographical circumstances ordinary washing soaps weren$t the

most suitable thing in laundry in areas like #nuradhapura, %olonnaruwa, &ambantota etc'

&ere in the middle of ()*+$s a new solution, washing powder was introduced suitable for any

water condition that used in laundry.

#t the mid of ())+$s, the brand Surf Excelwas launched in Sri Lanka. #t present the brand

Surf Excelhas become a famous brand among all areas in Sri Lanka by winning peoples$

hearts. ow it contains several large scale channels and thousands of workers -oined. #t the

beginning of +(+ it is included most famous detergent brands in Sri Lanka ac/uiring 0+1 of

market share.

Surf Excelis originally manufactured in "ndia and imported, marketed by 2niliver Sri Lanka.

#s being the sole agent in Sri Lanka the marketing process of Surf Excel is totally handled by

2niliver Sri Lanka.

#t the launching time market segmentation was insignificant as there wasn$t many competitors.

#s being a new product, people were taken forward to buy and use Surf Excel without any

effort. 3ut at the end of ())+$s due to diversification of the detergent industry 2niliver

reconsidered their marketing mix. #s a result Surf Excelwas introduced in a fresh appearance

targeted towards housewives as a highly effective stain remover. This new appearance

succeeded in short run but in the long run they had to make some changes to the original one.


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Surf Exceldoesn$t focused on how effective it works on the stain but says don$t worry about

stains because Surf Excel will take off the stains, which means stain removal is nothing to it

when the others talking about how to remove stains using their products. This idea gives a

special place for Surf Excel among other competitive products, remaining on customers$

intentions that Surf Excel is the most suitable laundry cleaning product for a family with kids.

7n the other hand, it implies that if it can handle the stains on kid$s cloths, removing stains on

adult$s clothes is nothing. This shows the uni/ue features of Surf Excel and the strategy of

positioning. #lso it differentiate from 2niliver$s other detergent products due to the same

reason and they use this strategy to discourage new enters to the industry taking the ultimate

advantage from positioning.

8hen considering on marketing mix of Surf Excel basically, one can observe competitor

dependence mostly except promotions. 7ther tools of marketing mix such as %rice, %lacing are

mostly same as the others. Those things are discussed in detailed further.


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The 6arketing 6ix of Surf Excel

(. %roduct

8hen considering market mix tools of Surf Excelthe product is the most important thing as

the people are used to believe that all detergent products are appear same. Surf Excelhaving

special formula which can work in both hard and soft water which means Surf Excel acts

same at the south end of Sri Lanka as well as middle or north end. Specially Surf Excel can be

easily identified among the other products as its uni/ue container.

The consumers$ need can be varied consumer to consumer based on intention. "n a product like

detergent powder the demand could not be exceed more than ( kg, according to the target

market. #lso the product should be available in small sachet matching to the buying power of

most of the members of the target market. So the Surf Excel product comes in small sachet to

( kg powder packs, giving the opportunity to the customer to fulfill his9her need. 7n the other

hand this type of range makes sure that customers of Surf Excelwon$t bend for another

product in a case of lacking buying power.


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Surf Excelintroduced their product range mainly in two categories.

1. Surf Excel:uick wash.

2. Surf Excel6atic.

Surf Excel

:uick wash is strategically targeted on most of customers in their target market. "tcan be used for both hand wash and washing machine

and promoted throughout all parts in Sri Lanka in all

forms, such as sachet ;+ g, (++ g, ++ g, ;++ g and ( kg.

#lso can be purchased in any store, super market etc'

o matter of water


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2niliver only imports two product ranges from a vast product range compared to the

manufacturer. There are available many related products like Surf Excel3lue, Surf Excel

Li/uid wash etc'

5onsidering along the segmentation and target market, a product like Surf Excel blue will be a

nicely matching product as the members of target market use blue as well as washing powder.

8ith the previous experiences in Surf Excelwashing powder there exists a high probability of

accepting such a product by the target market.

. %rice

#ccording to the target market the price should not be exceed the limit that a normal family

willing to pay for detergent. #lso there are many competitors with various prices and small

differences of the product outcome. 3eing one of the old detergent powder Surf Excel

dominates a high market share compared to the others. &ere Surf Excel has got the advantage

of competing with both cheap and expensive brands using its two product range. "t competes

with cheaper ones using Surf Excel:uick wash and expensive brands with Surf Excel6atic.

2niliver also promotes a detergent powder called >inwhich has different /ualities other than

Surf Excel. Strategically 2niliver does this to survive both products and make the pricing

using one as the defender of the other. This helps to Surf Excel to set the highest price margin

without refusing by the customer. #lso beat the competitors and to gain competitive advantage.

7bserving the process of pricing of Surf Excelshows that 2niliver is using competition based

pricing policy that the Surf Exceldoesn$t increase or decrease its price independently but

depending on the competitors. This acts as a main reason of non?refusing by the customers

because price of the all other similar products are also raised at the same time.

#lso the product range like Surf Excel6atic gives the higher profit margin focused on to the

customers who concern on /uality rather than price. So Surf Excel6atic price setting not

highly based on the competitors prices but the /uality. %resently we can observe a price war

between Sunlight, >in, Surf Exceland 4iva, four ma-or brands in Sri Lanka. 4ue to this, the

customers may switch from one product to another to get superior satisfaction. There is a nice


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opportunity of attracting other customers who use different brands towards Surf Exceland to

increase the market share of them.

Suggestions

"f Surf Excel can maintain a medium price among the similar products will give an

opportunity to attract customers from the other brands who aren$t selecting Surf Excelas their

detergent powder.

5urrently there isn$t a fixed pricing policy such as discounts at the purchase or price reduction

at the ma-or purchases as the other similar brands do. 7ur opinion is that if

Surf Excelcan such a policy there market share will be higher in a short time.

Surf Excelsachet price is the highest price among the similar product. This has made the most

of sachet users away from buying Surf Excelsachet. This should be considered by the Surf

Excelmarketers.

%romotions

Surf Excelhighly believes in sales gain through promotions. #nnually they spend a lot for

these promotions. Typically sales promotions can be observed and customer targeted

promotions can be highly seen.

Specially according to their strategic marketing plan, mothers having small kids @ target

market? are mainly focused they involved in the traditional marketing promotions and also

modern techni/ues they own gondolas %7S stalls and etc' #lso field activities which can be

significantly identified from the other similar brands.

Especially their field promotions a set of activities for the customers


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#dvertising using media.

Surf Excel mainly uses television and daily papers


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4. Through these promotion programs Surf Excel has been gained a memorable

reputation among all the customers which strongly helps to be survived.


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%lacing

Group Members

M.M.M Dilushan AS2009351

AS/63344/2008/2009

M.D.M Lahiru AS2009426 AS/62768/2008/2009

B.A.E.H Mendis AS2009449 AS 62786 2008 2009


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92649591 Today in Sri Lanka the Detergent Industry Has Become a Turbulent

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